Interestingly, it is said that a large number of people from al-Rafeed went to fight the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq (some 152 people), with at least three of them having been killed in Iraq. Two of those three people were killed in Fallujah. Some of the Iraq veterans had a role in forming Liwa al-Sabteen, including one Ali al-Rafi', who is currently said to be residing in Germany, and his brother Ala' al-Rafi' who was killed in 2014.

The deep reality here (a reality not unlike the one that’s playing itself out on certain college campuses right now) is that many human beings, especially perhaps young human beings, still crave a transcendent purpose, even in a society that tells them they don’t really need one to live a comfortable, fulfilling life. And more than that, many people experience both a kind of liberation and a kind of joy in submission to these purposes, even — as is the case with ISIS — when that submission involves accepting forms of violence and cruelty that rightly shock the conscience of the world.

This joy is not something that our culture is conditioned to expect or accept, let alone to counter